


Christmas Wishes

by AwakeAndAliveSpartan



Series: The Max!Verse AU [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Oneshot, Post-Hive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 14:11:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8803894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwakeAndAliveSpartan/pseuds/AwakeAndAliveSpartan
Summary: It's Christmas and Grant's thankful for what he finally has.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick note: This is based off of an AU created by a friend on Tumblr and I where Grant survived Hive and took him away from SHIELD. She helped him recover, with the help of a therapy dog named Max, and they eventually fell in love again.

“Grant, sweetheart, I think we need to get up.”

Grant groaned and peeled his eyes open as he could feel Skye gently shaking his shoulder. He squinted at the light filtering through the closed blinds, “What time is it?” he mumbled, not bothering to turn around to look at his wife.

“About half past eight.” Skye answered, smiling as Grant groaned once more. Ever since Hive, Grant always slept in pretty late. Even though things such as his diet and exercise habits had never changed, Grant loved to sleep. And to this day Skye really wasn’t sure to why that was. She figured that it was just mental exhaustion and all the meds he was finally starting to get weaned off of after a little over six years.

“Why do we need to get up?”

“Because it’s Christmas morning and it’s best that we get up before Adian ends up waking up and getting to the presents before we even get into the living room. And besides, we need to get him to eat before he opens presents.” Skye explained, going ahead and sitting up. She watched as Grant slowly rose up and drug a hand down his bearded face. “And you know that he’s going to be completely excited.”

“Don’t remind me.” Grant mumbled, leaning over and giving Skye a quick kiss on the cheek. “He may get most things from me, but he gets his excitability from you. And hell, he’s only four.”

Skye rolled her eyes and slid out of the bed, slipping on a pair of slippers. She turned back around to see Grant coming to his feet and putting on a t-shirt. “I still think that you need to get a little more excited about things.” she stated. “Well, you were pretty excited last night when we were wrapping Adian’s presents.”

Grant paused, turning to look at Skye with a raised eyebrow, “That’s because I know that he’ll love his presents and I want to give him a good Christmas every year. You know neither of us really ever had a good Christmas, so I want Adian to have one.”

“More like spoiling him.”

“I’m just trying to give him the childhood that we didn’t have.” Grant stated, walking around the bed to reach his wife. “You didn’t have one at all and I spent fifteen years getting the shit beat out of me for no reason. I want to be a way better father than my dad was.”

“And now he’s dead.” Skye commented.

“Let’s not mention anything that happened before Hive, okay?” Grant asked, heading towards the door of the bedroom. “I like this new life, I don’t want to reminisce over the old one.”

Skye shook her head and followed Grant out of the room. She did agree with him, this new life was way better than the old one. It had been a long six years since Grant had been freed from Hive and Skye had taken him away from SHIELD, but the time had been good. Despite Grant’s numerous mental issues stemming from Hive, Garrett, and his childhood, she had enjoyed their time together.

Grant had come a long way from the broken and beaten man that she had taken away from SHIELD. He still had issues, many of which probably wouldn’t heal for a long time now. But he still was a whole lot better than he had been. And things were a whole lot different now, mainly because they were married and had a four year old son. But Skye knew this was much better than what they had at first.

The couple went down the hall to their son’s bedroom and Grant was the first to go in. He was met by Max, their six year old German shepherd. Max had been one of the first things they had gotten when they had moved to this house. The dog had been a therapy dog for Grant to help the man through the numerous issues that he had been trying to fight. But now that time had passed and Grant was a whole lot better and didn’t need to depend on Max like how he used to, Max was more of Adian’s ‘protector’.

Grant smiled and bent down to pet Max on the head. He then looked at Skye, “You want to wake up or should I do it?” he asked.

Skye shrugged, “I don’t think that it really matters. As soon as you mention presents to him, he’ll be wide awake. Just wake him and say that Santa came.”

“Whatever.” Grant mumbled, walking over to the bed. He leaned over the little boy and reached out to gently shake his shoulder, “Hey, Adian, it’s time to wake up.”  he called. “It’s Christmas.”

After a little bit Adian just groaned and swatted at his father. Skye laughed at that, Adian was just like Grant.

“Adian, I think Santa came and left you some presents.” Grant tried again. “Santa came.”

“Santa?” Adian almost immediately sat up, blinking sleepily at his father. “There’s presents?”

Grant smiled and reached out to pick up his son, “Yep, you wanna go open them?” he asked. “I think he left a good bit.”

Once the little boy was awake and truly realized just what was going on, he nodded excitedly, “Yeah!” he exclaimed, struggling to get out of his father’s grasp. “Did he bring me a bike?”

“Well, I don’t know, you’ll have to see for yourself.” Grant teased, putting Adian down. He shook his head and laughed as Adian ran full speed out of the room followed by Max. Grant looked at Skye and held up a finger, insinuating for her to wait. A few seconds passed before a scream was heard.

“A bike!” Adian screamed from the living room.

“Told you he would like it.” Skye commented, beginning to walk out of the room, Grant following her. “But he needs to eat before he opens presents. Because knowing him, he’ll be conked out soon after he opens everything.”

“Good luck with getting him to do that.” Grant commented as they walked down the hallway towards the living room. “Once he has his mind set on something, there’s no changing it.”

“Not if mom has a say so.” Skye stated, walking into the living room. She walked up behind Adian, whom of which was in complete awe over all the presents. “Sweetheart, you need to eat some breakfast before you get busy with those, okay?”

Adian turned around with a pout, “Not hungry.” he protested with his arms crossed. He got that from Grant. “I want presents.”

Skye took his hand and began to lead him towards the kitchen, “But you’re a growing boy that needs his breakfast.”

He tried to pull away from here, “I don’t wanna.”

“Well, you have to eat breakfast before you open your presents. That’s my rule.” Skye stated, picking him up and carrying him to the kitchen. She sat him down at the table, “Do you want a waffle?” she asked.

Adian looked up at her with his whiskey-brown eyes, “Yes.” he replied, disappointment in his voice.

Skye sighed and looked over to Grant, whom of which had now joined them, “Can you cook him a waffle and get his fruit?” she asked. “And I’ll get the coffee going and get Max fed.”

“Sure.”

They spent the next little while getting breakfast ready. Adian practically wolfed down his and was pretty much bouncing up and down in his seat for his parents to give him the all clear. Once they said it was okay for him to go back to the living room, he bolted out. Both Grant and Skye groaned as they followed suit.

After Grant had separated Adian’s presents from their own and Max’s, yes he even got presents, they sat down on the couch and allowed Adian to tear through his presents. The little boy was most excited about his bike, he had been wanting one for a while now. But he was still pleased with everything else he got, which were mainly some toys from some show he really loved and a few Lego sets.

After he was done with his own presents, he helped open the ones for Max. The dog ended up getting several squeaky toys and a few stuffed animals, all of which he was overly excited for. Adian played with a few of his toys as Grant and Skye began to exchange gifts with one another.

Now, they didn’t give each other much, mainly because they believed they already had the best gift, whom of which was Adian. Grant had gotten Skye a nice new necklace and a few other things. And Skye had gotten Grant a new watch and a new leather jacket. They really didn’t care about getting gifts for one another.

After some time had passed and just like they had figured, Adian had fell back asleep. The little boy laid fast asleep against Max, his black hair mixing into the dog’s black fur. Scraps of wrapping paper surrounded him, creating quite a scene.

Grant sighed and smiled, leaning back in the couch, “You know, it’s still hard to believe that I have all of this.” he commented. “I know that it’s been a little over four years since Adian was born and about three since we married, but it’s still hard to believe after what happened.”

Skye leaned into him, “Yeah, it’s hard for me, too.”

“I mean, six years ago I wanted to die.” Grant continued. “Hive messed me up so bad that I couldn’t live with myself. I couldn’t live with the panic attacks and the hallucinations. There were so many times that I wanted to die, but I could never do it. I didn’t want to leave you behind.”

“But look where you are now since you pushed through it. You’re married to me, we have a son. You really came a long way.”

“Yeah, I’m not that monster anymore. I guess Hive was my wakeup call to try and change my ways.”

“You know that not everything was your fault, Grant. Garrett practically brainwashed you and was controlling you. Yes, there were a few things that you could’ve turned against, but not everything was in your control.” Skye stated, threading her fingers with his.

“But it still took me dying, being possessed by a parasite for months, coming back to life, and having a subsequent breakdown for me to change.” Grant continued. “I went through so much in order to become a good man, but I guess that it all paid off in the end, right?”

Skye smiled and nuzzled closer into him, “Of course it did. You’re a great husband and an amazing father. I knew that there was a good man inside of you somewhere. It’s just that your family and Garrett buried it away.”

Grant looked to the sleeping Adian on the floor, “I guess you’re right. But I still wish that I could go back and change things. I wish that I could make it to where I saw through Garrett’s bullshit and chose the team instead of him. Then all that bad stuff would’ve never happened.”

“Yeah, maybe it would. But that’s the past, Grant, you can’t change it. Look, we’re in an amazing place right now and I wouldn’t give it up for the world. I don’t think that it matters that you had a horrible past, all that matters now is who you are currently.”

He leaned his head down and kissed her on the top of the head, “Yeah, let’s forget the old me. I like who I am now. And I love where I am now as well. I love you, I love Adian, and I love Max. I love all of this. I know that I still have a good ways to go before I’m completely better and I may never even be ‘better’, but I still love all of this.”

“Hmm?” Skye notioned, wrapping an arm around her husband. “So you say.”

“I wouldn’t trade this for the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's not quite what I wanted it to be, but I still hope that you enjoyed it! Find me on Tumblr @gears-of-ward !


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